page_title: Terry Bradshaw
section_title: Early years
hierarchical_section_title: Terry Bradshaw / Early years
caption_attribution_description: English: Terry Bradshaw in his freshman year (1966-1967) at Louisiana Polytechnic Institute (now Louisiana Tech University) in Ruston, Louisiana. Bradshaw was a quarterback on the Bulldog football team that finished with a one-win, ten-loss season.
context_page_description: Terry Paxton Bradshaw is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League. Since 1994, he has been a television sports analyst and co-host of Fox NFL Sunday. Bradshaw is also an actor, having participated in many television shows and films, most notably starring in the movie Failure to Launch. He played for 14 seasons with Pittsburgh, won four Super Bowl titles in a six-year period, becoming the first quarterback to win three and four Super Bowls, and led the Steelers to eight AFC Central championships. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1989, his first year of eligibility. Bradshaw was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1996.
  A tough competitor, Bradshaw is known for having one of the most powerful arms in NFL history. His physical skills and on-the-field leadership played a major role in the Pittsburgh Steelers' history. During his career, he passed for more than 300 yards in a game only seven times, but three of those performances came in the postseason, and two of those in Super Bowls.
context_section_description: Bradshaw was born in Shreveport, Louisiana. His father, William Marvin "Bill" Bradshaw (1927–2014), a native of Sparta, Tennessee, was a veteran of the United States Navy, a former vice president of manufacturing of the Riley Beaird Company in Shreveport, and a Southern Baptist layman. Terry's mother, Novis (née Gay; born 1929), was one of five children of Clifford and Lula Gay of Red River Parish, Louisiana. He has an older brother, Gary, and a younger brother, Craig.
  The work ethic was particularly strong in the Bradshaw household. In his early childhood, the family lived in Camanche, Iowa, where he set forth the goal to play professional football. When he was a teenager, Bradshaw returned with his family to Shreveport. There, he attended Woodlawn High School, played under assistant coach A. L. Williams, and led the Knights to the AAA state championship game in 1965, but lost 12–9 to the Sulphur Golden Tornadoes. While at Woodlawn, he set a national record for throwing the javelin at 245 feet (74.68 m); his exploits earned him a spot in the Sports Illustrated feature Faces In The Crowd. Bradshaw's successor as Woodlawn's starting quarterback was another future NFL standout, Joe Ferguson of the Buffalo Bills. Bradshaw's Steelers would defeat Ferguson's Bills in a 1974 divisional playoff game.
caption: Bradshaw in 1967
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